Despite Odds, Officials Tout Race Track

January 25, 1989|By ANDY PARKER Staff Writer

ISLE OF WIGHT — Can a few horses running around a large oval track actually convince 7,000 folks a day to drive to a location somewhere in Virginia and wager almost $500,000 of their money daily on the thoroughbred with the catchiest name?

William Killingsworth, a Massachussetts-based consultant for Virginians for Horse Racing, says yes.

And to date, the citizens of Isle of Wight seem to be saying yes, Begland said.

Only one person showed up at the courthouse Tuesday to find out why local officials are so convinced that a $60-million horse racing facility would succeed in Isle of Wight.

Civic clubs have already circulated 12 petitions and compiled between 200 and 300 of the 613 signatures needed for the county to hold a special election to let voters decide whether they want a horse track in their backyard.

In November county residents favored by a large margin legalizing pari-mutuel betting in the state.

Killingsworth, the man behind the financial and attendance projections, also served as an adviser to a group of Alabama investors who financed the $84-million Birmingham Turf Club.

The Turf Club gained national attention when it closed last year only a year after it had opened with losses totaling more than $12 million.

Killingsworth had originally suggested that a $75-million track in Virginia would attract about 9,000 people daily who would wager close to $1 million.

He scaled down his estimates for Virginia following the highly publicized failure of the Alabama track.

Killingsworth could not be reached for comment.

But for every bad day at the track in the racing industry, their seems to be a an equal number of success stories.

A new track in Oklahoma is already breaking even. New tracks in New Jersey and Minnesota that lost millions of dollars initially now appear to be profitable.

The problems in Alabama were more closely related to poor management once the facility opened than to inaccurate economic projections by Killingsworth, said Jeff Gregson, director of public affairs for Virginians for Horse Racing. "Alabama was an exception, an aberration," said Gregson, who noted the state had no history of horse-related industries.

Despite the fact that horse track attendance around the country has steadily declined during the past years (although the amount of money wagered is up) and despite the fact that four of five major new tracks built in the past three years have either failed or are struggling to break even, Begland insists horse racing can succeed in Isle of Wight.

Isle of Wight is one of several Virginia localities interested in convincing horse racing investors to set up shop. Other localities where interest has been expressed in a track include the Bowers Hill area of Chesapeake, Suffolk, Williamsburg and Gloucester, New Kent, James City and York counties.

Begland says that Isle of Wight, because of its proximity to Hampton Roads population centers and its accessibility to the Richmond area, is very much in the running for the state's first horse racing facility. She discounts the failures of other tracks as the result of unrealistic financial planning.

"You have got to have deep pockets to succeed (in the horse racing industry)," said Begland. "You must be able to lose money for a year or two in the beginning." Begland says some tracks have failed because investors "lacked the necessary resources. They closed because the money just wasn't there to begin with."

The Virginia Racing Commission has been given the task of investigating investors to determine if they are capable of supporting a horse racing facility. Gov. Gerald Baliles appointed that five-member commission earlier this month. The commission has not met.

"We're right on target," said Begland. "People view this as a good economic investment opportunity. We just have an education job to the region itself to let people know we're really not out in the middle of nowhere."